Determining the Length Scale of Transport Impedances in Li-Ion Electrodes: Li(Ni0.33Mn0.33Co0.33)O2

Abstract

Battery cathodes are complex multiscale, multifunctional materials. The length scale at which the dominant impedance arises may be difficult to determine even with the most advanced experimental characterization efforts, and thus modeling can play an important role in analysis. Discharge and voltage relaxation curves, interrogated with theory, are used to distinguish between transport impedance that arise on the scale of the active crystal and on the scale of agglomerates (secondary particles) comprised of nanoscale crystals. Model-selection algorithms are applied to determine that the agglomerate scale is dominant in the electrode studied here. Furthermore, conditions where the agglomerate and crystal-scale models yield distinct simulation results are demonstrated, providing approaches that can be applied to other systems.